Primeval Series 4: Episode 1: MIA
by Seanchaidh
Summary: Starting off where Series 3 left off. What has become of our heroes? What has become of our villains? More importantly: who's feeding Abby's lizards?
1. Chapter 1

**Primeval Series 4**

**Episode 1: MIA**

**Chapter 1**

He'd fallen asleep on the sofa again. Abby would be furious if he'd left the telly on, or worse: the playstation. The sofa was harder than he remembered. Maybe he'd spent too long at Lester's luxury "pied à terre", or whatever else posh people with big houses in the country or the suburbs call their spare flat in town.

He shifted uncomfortably. The sofa was definitely harder than he remembered, and lumpier. Maybe he should talk to Abby about getting a new one. It would mean spending money he wasn't too sure he had, but faced with the prospect of getting rid of him, perhaps Lester would consent to a pay rise. Maybe even a moving out bonus!

The sound of munching reached his ears. Rex was awake then. Well, if Rex was awake, and eating, that meant Abby was awake too. He groaned. If Abby was awake, that meant she knew he'd slept on the sofa. That meant she'd be calmly feeding all the intelligent creatures in the house (namely herself and the lizards) and waiting on him waking up so that she could tell him how much damage he was doing to his spine. As if they were that likely to live long enough to worry about a bad back in their line of work!

The munching sound grew louder. It was now accompanied by rustling and tearing noises. Oh please, don't let her have fed Rex cabbage again! Last time they spent all week clearing up after him! And there is nowhere - nowhere! - that a flying prehistoric reptile can't go apparently!

A warm breeze blew violently across the top of his head. So Rex had finished his meal and gone off to deposit the remains of it somewhere then. Something cold and damp landed on the side of his face and slid downward.

"Urgh! Rex!" Connor shouted, sitting up sharply and banging his head on something solid and leathery.

"Wha..." Abby muttered, rubbing her eyes. She looked at Connor, closed her eyes, counted to five and opened them again. "Er, Conn?"

"Ow," was the mumbled reply as Connor rubbed his bruised head with one hand and damp cheek with his other sleeve.

"I'm not dreaming, by any chance, am I?" Abby continued, pushing herself up into a sitting position with her back to a branch.

"Not any more, anyway," was the grumbled reply. "Welcome to the Cretaceous, all over again! Complete with massive trees, active volcanoes and your all time favourite pack of hungry raptors!"

"And Dino's big brother."

"And Dino's big brother, yes... What?"

Abby looked at Connor, her eyes narrowed. He shrugged and waved his hands in mute confusion. She raised an eyebrow and looked up. He followed her gaze. The sound that followed this manoeuvre sounded remarkably like a cross between an old fashioned kettle boiling and sock being stuck in a trumpet. She decided it was a strangled scream. Connor's eyes were still locked onto the massive jawbone he had hit sitting up. Above his head the dinosaur chewed peacefully.

"I think he's having breakfast," Abby mused. "The sun doesn't seem that high yet."

"Uh-huh," Connor's voice was higher than usual. "Although with a body that size, some experts believed Sauroposeidon to be a continual grazer only slightly less active at night due to a marginal drop in body temperature with the sheer bulk of the body providing its own insulation for the internal organs, thereby keeping the blood warm and the animal active even in cold temperatures..."

"Connor: breathe."

"Sorry."

Abby waited until Connor's shoulders had relaxed down from the level of his ears before continuing the conversation.

"I thought we were too high for anything to reach us here?"

"Too high for any carnivores," he corrected. "Most of the herbivores too. This one just happens to be..."

"The only one that could reach us?"

"Pretty much," Connor nodded. "Tallest dinosaur of the Cretaceous. Almost as tall as the largest dinosaur ever found. Only about a third of the size though. They lost the fossil for that somehow, though, so that technically makes this the tallest dinosaur ever found. The orientation of the hips..."

"Babbling again."

"Shutting up."

"So it's a herbivore?"

"Yes."

"So it doesn't want to eat us?"

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean..."

"I understand, Connor," Abby cut him off and decided to change tack. "Will it hurt us if it sees us as a threat?"

"What?" Connor's brow wrinkled. "I don't know," he shrugged. "I don't think it knows what a threat is. Even a G-rex would have a hard time taking a Sauroposeidon on."

"So, it's kind of like a dinosaur version of a human shield?"

"Well, I guess, but you would have to be..." Connor's face paled visibly. "No, no, no, no! Abby you cannot be thinking of..."

"You want to climb down and take a stroll with the raptors?"

"Come on, Abs! It's fifty feet tall! You can't be serious!"

"It's a walking taxi!"

"It doesn't know that!"

"It won't even notice we're there!"

"It won't even notice when we fall off and break our necks!"

"We can climb down its neck!"

"Then you'll break its neck!"

"It's a dinosaur! Don't be ridiculous!"

"I'm not! Have you any idea what size those neck muscles would have to be to lift that head all the way up here if those bones were solid? They're hollow, like bird bones!"

"We're hardly going to add that much weight to it!"

"We're not using a sauropod as a handy staircase bannister!"

"No, that might be painful, we'll climb down carefully."

"Abby!"

"Just down to the ribs, then we'll see where it takes us."

"Abby!"

Connor groaned as he watched Abby stand up and reach up to the massive head munching placidly above them. One gigantic eye rolled lazily round to view the strange little twig that was now rubbing the sauropod's nose.

"It sees me," murmured Abby in awe.

"Well, at least it hasn't eaten you yet," muttered Connor in heartfelt resignation.

"Come on!"

Before Connor could protest, Abby had scrambled further up the tree with the agility of a monkey and was shinning out on a branch that overhung the dinosaur's domed head. Connor sighed. He'd regret this. He knew he'd regret this. Watching the huge eye follow the movement of the funny little twig that was now perched on the sauropod's head, Connor rolled his eyes and followed Abby up.

XXXX

Doctor Sarah Page, student of archaeology and mythology, was busy with the archaeologists' time honoured favourite task. She was trying to piece together a construction of the past with only limited information to aid her. She was trying to put together Cutter's model from the CCTV recordings. It would have been a lot easier if she had a nice full recording of Cutter putting the thing together in the first place, but apparently that data had been in the server bank destroyed in the fire. Only the data from the day of the fire had been on the mainframe at the time and had, therefore, survived in the incomprehensible machinations of the super info ether that seemed impervious to anything except time itself.

"Even if you do get it back in place, and I mean exactly in place," Becker stated coolly from the doorway. "Even then, there's no way of knowing which of the intersecting timelines we need to look at. Cutter only made one prediction, to a different time zone I might add. Apart from Connor, I'm fairly sure Jenny was the only person here when Cutter made that prediction. The recordings have been wiped and all of Cutter's paperwork has gone up in smoke. You have no way of calibrating the model. Without knowing where we are in it, how can we possibly figure out where they are!"

"Actually, you're forgetting something," Sarah replied without looking up.

"Am I? I must eat more oily fish."

"And you've been spending too much time around Lester," Sarah rolled her eyes. "But more to the point, there was someone else here when Cutter made that prediction: me. And I helped him work out all the dates. All the mythological sightings, all the anomalies we'd already encountered, everything."

"But Cutter did the actual work of putting the model into place. He actually built it."

"Cutter figured it out," Sarah shrugged. "There's no reason why I can't do the same."

"Cutter was a genius," Becker quipped raising an eyebrow. Sarah glared at him.

XXXX

Danny scratched irritably at the stubble covering the lower portions of his face. He hated having a beard. Always had. At least it stopped his chin getting sunburnt though. He took another swig from his water bottle. It was nearly empty, but he had another two from Helen's pack, and at least he'd be back at the anomaly site soon.

Up ahead he spotted the rocky ledge that had saved the entire human race. That and an out of time raptor looking for a meal and maybe some form of ironic karma. He wouldn't be able to refill his water bottles at the spring there. Not yet anyway. Even if the water wasn't still polluted with Helen's poison, the dead bodies would have started rotting by now, especially in this heat. He decided to take the high road and head up the ledge and around the impromptu graveyard.

The climb took maybe five minutes more than going round the pool at ground level, but the view alone was worth it. Danny could see his destination clearly. The anomaly hadn't reopened, but there was a straighter path than the one he'd planned on that might save him some time and, not far beyond that, over another rise, some greenery that suggested another stream. He hadn't seen it before, but it would be closer to the anomaly site if he needed to go and refill his water bottles before it opened again. He moved closer to the edge of the ledge, climbing up on a boulder to get a better look. Yes, there was almost definitely water there. That was good. He'd check it out once he got back to the anomaly site. He closed his eyes, memorising the landscape in front of him. It took him another five minutes and another swig of water, but then he was sure he had it. He knelt down to climb off the boulder and froze.

As he had knelt down, Danny's eyes has swung down to the boulder and the land below it. It wasn't so much what he saw there that made him pause: dead bodies in various states of disrepair were not uncommon to him. What made the blood in Danny's sunburnt veins run cold was the patch of dirt that Helen and the raptor had landed on. It was empty.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Don't lecture me, Captain, I am quite capable of understanding the implications all by myself," drawled Sir James Peregrine Lester from the highly ergonomically tested and physiotherapeutically acclaimed office chair that sat lazily behind his desk. "Given the present state of affairs we are walking a tightrope between containment of highly sensitive information and the necessity of dealing with its various outcomes. It is not a situation I am unfamiliar with, however, and you may rest assured that I have taken all necessary steps."

"I'm glad to hear it, Sir," you could hear the capital letter, "but as commander of this unit I would appreciate being kept informed of such... Possible outcomes."

"Be assured, Becker: when I know, you will know," Lester drummed his fingers on the desk, irritably. An indulgence he infrequently appropriated. "The PM is aware of our present situation, and of my concerns. He has assured me he will inform me when he has ascertained the best replacements members for our sadly diminished team."

"And until then, Sir?"

"We leave off the prediction and stick to the containment. Is that clear enough for you Captain?"

"Quite, Sir."

"Then get out of my office and get on with the job you are being paid for!"

Becker sighed inwardly. He should have known nothing short of the brash, brazen, inaccessible rudeness of Cutter would have made it through that diamond smooth veneer.

"Yes, Sir," he said, removing himself from the room. Perhaps there was a deadly prehistoric killer lurking around a corner for him to deal with. It would certainly be a step down from Lester in terms of difficulty.

XXXX

"Wake up, Dorothy, we're not in Kansas any more."

"Wrong movie, remarkably!"

"This is entirely your fault, you know."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"I mean, I could have just stayed there in the tree and waited for something else to come along, but you forced my hand."

"Yes, Connor, I know."

"I told you it was a bad idea."

"I think we've covered that."

"Just let me savour it. Please?"

"Why should I?"

"It doesn't happen often."

"Granted."

"So, to sum up, we are currently trapped in the bowels of the earth, having fallen off a giant sauropod into a system of tunnels of, as yet, unknown length and containing, as yet, unknown creatures."

Abby rolled her eyes and tried a shrug. She winced at the pain that shot through her shoulders. Maybe not then. Not for a while anyway. A shrug would be wasted on him in this darkness anyway.

"You're the expert," she sighed. "What sort of things does the fossil record say lives in these sort of places?"

"Actually, the fossil record is remarkably quiet on that point," the sarcasm had dropped out of Connor's voice now. "A combination of history and nature tells us there must be something, there's always something, but whatever that something was it was either too small, too degradable or too soft to leave any decent fossils."

"So expect small, slimy things then. Great."

"Well, not quite," said Connor, quick to correct as always. "I mean, there's lots of things we know of that would fit in these tunnels. It's just that it's hard to tell what lives in a tunnel when the tunnels themselves don't last. I mean: palaeontology would be easy if it turned up perfectly preserved entire ecosystems instead of vague imprints and bits of bone casts."

"And that means what exactly?" Abby was beginning to think that small slimy things sounded a great option.

"Well," Connor drew out the word until Abby wondered whether or not a glare could be felt through utter darkness. Apparently it could. "I mean everything down here is probably down here to hide from all the other stuff up there..."

"But?"

"But nature makes sure that where there's prey, there's predators."

"How big a predator are we talking about, Connor?"

"That kind of depends."

"On what?"

"On the size of the tunnel."

"Well, at least we know how wide it is, right?"

"Not exactly."

Abby felt her stomach sink even further than it already had. Surely not. Oh, he couldn't have could he? Oh, God he had! He'd said they were in a system of tunnels and she'd believed him. No question. She'd assumed he knew they were in tunnels because he, being the taller of them, could feel where the edges were. She'd forgotten that normal logic never seemed to apply to the likes of Connor Temple. She took a deep breath, almost dreading the answer.

"Then how do you know we're in a tunnel?" Abby sighed. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"There's a breeze coming from the other side of me."

"How do you know that's not from the hole we fell through?"

"It's going the wrong way, and anyway you can barely see the gap because of all the plant stuff in the way."

"Great. Now what do we do?"

"Hole up here for a while?"

Abby glared at him in the darkness. Her silence, if not her glare, seemed to get through to him.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Connor mumbled.

"Connor, we're stuck underground in total darkness in what you are certain is a system of tunnels filled with unknown types and quantities of creatures. Please try to be serious just for a little bit!"

"Well, it's not total darkness..." Connor began.

"Yes it is: I can't see a thing. Unless of course you're counting the tiny bright spot I can see between all those roots we fell through."

"Stop looking at it."

"What?"

"Stop staring up at where we fell through: it's stopping your eyes from adjusting."

"Oh," Abby frowned at her stupidity. Of course it was.

"Can you stand up?" Connor asked her after a moment. Abby noted that his voice had moved. When had he done that? Got up from her side without her noticing.

"I think so," she grumbled, pushing herself up on her elbows and trying to ignore the complaints from her bruised shoulders and hips.

"Careful: the ceiling's quite low."

Abby rolled herself over onto her knees and waved a hand in the general direction of Connor's voice. She hit something solid and heard him breathe in sharply. That would be his bad leg then. His hand soon grabbed hers though, and she felt him lift her to her feet. And arm wrapped round her waist and held her close. She could feel his breath on her face and, for a second, thought he was going to kiss her. Then she remembered: low ceiling. A tinge of hope fluttered out of its hiding place, was quickly caught and even more quickly locked back away by the disappointment. She could do without that complication right now.

Couldn't she?

XXXX

Danny wandered wearily across the barren wasteland before him. It was still there. He could see it. The bright shining light that had woken him from a restless sleep one night and filled his mind and his vision all through that day and the next. Now here it was: right in front of him. It wasn't the one he'd come through. He knew that. It had been too far away. There was a stream running behind it. He grimaced. He hadn't taken his eyes off the anomaly once since he spotted it. Not once. Not even when his water had run out early that morning, before the full force of the sun had started to drag the moisture from his every breath. He wasn't going to start now. He staggered forwards. Not far now. He could feel the pull of the magnetic field on the iron in his belt buckle, his rucksack, his shoes, even. Staring blindly at the shimmering light in front of him, he dragged his feet the last few steps and tumbled through.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Abby stumbled, her breath coming out in a sharp hiss as her knees made contact with the uneven tunnel floor yet again. Connor had gone down once in the darkness, landing painfully on his bad knee and letting out a yell that seemed thunderous in the deep silence that surrounded them. After that, he'd been the one to pick her up. She'd lost count of her falls. A combination of the darkness, the stifling silence, the thought of what might be quietly creeping up behind them and the throbbing pain of a cut on her brow from one of her many earlier falls were all starting to get to her. Her hand tightened on Connor's arm as he lifted her to her feet again.

"Why are you so calm?" Abby whispered, hearing her voice being sucked into the echo-less depths of the earth walls around them. "I thought you were claustrophobic?"

"That's small spaces, not darkness," Connor hissed back. "I might not be able to see the edges, but I know this isn't a small tunnel. And for the record, I'm not calm, I'm concentrating."

"On what?"

"Where to put my feet for starters!" Connor's arm moved round Abby's waist, catching her as she started to fall again.

"Any sign of any creatures yet?"

"I don't think they've evolved bioluminescence yet."

"How about a light at the end of the tunnel then?"

"You can see just as much as I can," Connor shrugged, his arm still around Abby's waist. "The air does feel fresher though."

"And that's a good thing, right?"

"Means we're getting closer."

"Thank goodness."

XXXX

Danny lifted his head slowly. He winced as a stab of pain shot right across his forehead. His mouth was dry. His tongue felt like sandpaper. He rolled over tentatively, vaguely aware of the pack on his back. It took him a few moments of painful contortion to wriggle out of the pack and fall, gasping, onto his back. The air around him was cool, cooler than the insistent furnace of Africa, anyway, and the sun wasn't beating down so brightly on his closed eyelids. He risked opening them, first one eye, then the other. The sky above him was green. He blinked, then frowned.

Green?

Pushing himself up onto his elbows, and wincing at the renewed pain from his sunburn and headache, Danny looked around him. A blur of greens, yellows and browns surrounded him. He frowned again and rubbed his eyes. The world around him started coming into focus. He was lying in the middle of a small clearing, surrounded by verdant shrubbery, trees and vines. The ground beneath him was covered in a spongy, yellowish moss that continued up the sides of the trees, getting greener as it went. He pressed a hand into it and brought the hand up to his face. It was damp. Any moisture that had made it through the green canopy above him was obviously caught and stored in the moss.

Drawing the hand across his lips in thought, Danny remembered how dry his mouth was. He reached for a water bottle and remembered they were empty. Dragging the nearest one out of the pack, he removed the lid, looked about thoughtfully, then half rolled, half crawled to the nearest tree. Pressing the bottle into the damp moss on its bark yielded a little water, but not much. Pressing his free hand to the bark above the bottle, Danny ushered more water out of the moss and into the container. A scant mouthful gathered in the bottom of the bottle. Danny brought the bottle to his lips and drained the contents, then moved on to the next tree to start the whole process again.

XXXX

"Sarah, please tell me you're not serious!" Becker sighed, his head falling as he counted the myriad small ways the doctor's plan could fail. It had taken him long enough just to prise the idea out of her. Presumably, her reticence on the subject was at least partially due to the fear that he would react exactly as he had done. Now he could only hope that reaction didn't push her to keep even more dangerous details to herself!

"Okay, I admit there are a few things that need ironing out," Sarah held up her hands in supplication.

"A few!"

"Well, what do you think I've been sat here working on?"

"Sarah..."

"Look, Becker, the model is finished, okay. It's done. At least as far as Cutter had completed it, anyway..."

"Sarah..."

"All the data we have points to those crossing points..."

"Sarah!"

"If we can just take a closer look at the future technology..."

"Doctor Page!" Becker's voice rose to a shout.

"What!" Sarah shot back.

"You are not going on some harebrained, high risk jaunt into a known death trap just on the off chance that..."

"That is not your call, Captain!"

"Don't try and pull rank on this!"

"I'm the highest ranking scientist left!"

"You're the only ranking scientist left! There is a difference! I will put you under house arrest if I have to!"

"Lester would overrule you."

"No, he really wouldn't."

"He needs his team back."

No, he needs A team. He's not really that picky about who it contains right now."

"Right, so he doesn't need me."

"Don't even consider doing this alone, Sarah: you wouldn't stand a chance!"

"Then come with me!"

"No," Becker folded his arms and stepped back towards the doorway. "It's suicide. I'm not going. My men aren't going. You're not going either. That's final."

"You can't stop me!"

"Do you really want to bet on that?"

Before Sarah could reply, Becker had stepped backwards, closed the door and turned the key. She rushed forwards and hammered on the door with her fists.

"Becker! Becker, let me out of here!" Sarah watched through the glass as Becker smiled, waved and turned away. "Don't you walk away! Don't you dare walk away! Becker!"

XXXX

Becker stood by the catwalk bannister, surveying the work going on down below on the atrium floor.

"Captain is there any particular reason why Doctor Page is locked her laboratory with two of your men on the door?" Lester drawled from somewhere over Becker's left shoulder.

Turning sharply to face his boss, Becker tried to hide the startled expression on his face. When he wanted to, he thought, Lester could walk as softly as a jungle cat. The man did it deliberately, he was sure.

"A temporary measure, Sir," Becker replied smoothly. "To make sure she doesn't do anything rash that could put her or the project in danger."

"And she is screaming blue murder and calling you every name under the sun because...?"

"She feels very strongly about said rash decision."

"I see," turning, Lester looked up and surveyed the roof of the atrium, looking from one security camera to another. He didn't turn back to Becker when he continued: "Go and fetch her. I want to see you both in my office immediately. I don't care if you have to put her over your shoulder and carry her, but I would prefer a better first impression to be made upon our new colleague than that of Doctor Page's backside."

"I'll try to bear that in mind, Sir," Becker replied, a slightly raised eyebrow the only change to his expression.

"Yes, well," Lester drawled. "As soon as you like, Captain. I do believe the word I used was immediately, not next week!"

"Of course, Sir," Becker inclined his head and turned in the direction of Sarah's lab.

XXXX

"I thought you said we were getting closer," Abby was appalled how whiny her voice sounded.

"We are, Abs, but like Einstein said: everything's relative!" Connor sighed. "Are you sure you're okay? I mean we can stop here and rest for a bit if you like."

"I'm fine! I just need to get out of here!" Abby moaned through gritted teeth. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, my head hurts and it's really hot in here!"

In the silence that followed, Abby felt Connor's arm, still wrapped around her waist, pull her to a stop.

"Abby, sweetheart," Connor's voice sounded hesitant. "What do you mean it's really hot in here?"

"What do you think I mean, Connor!" Why did he have to choose now to be pedantic? "I mean it's hot in here! I'm boiling alive here? Aren't you?"

Silence again.

"No, Abs, I'm not."

Abby felt Connor's free hand find it's way to her forehead. It was so cool, she wanted to reach out and grab that coolness back when he pulled away from her.

"Oh, that's all we need!" Connor muttered quietly.

"What?" Abby asked, her tone grumpy. "What is it?"

"Abby, darlin', I need you think really carefully for me now."

He was using that tone, Abby thought. The one he'd used with Jenny when she fell in the canal. The one he always used when he was worried.

"What?" Abby muttered.

"How long have you been feeling hot for?"

"I dunno..."

"Since before we fell into the tunnels?"

"No," Abby shook her head, then immediately regretted it and staggered. She felt Connor's arm tighten around her, keeping her upright.

"Most of the time since then?" Connor persisted.

"No," she replied, feeling her legs start to sag. "Not quite. Connor..."

"Woah!" Connor's knees bent as Abby turned into a dead weight in his arms. Out of options, he lowered her gently to the tunnel floor. "Abby? Abs?"

"Conn?" Abby felt like she was floating , disconnected from the world around her. Connor's voice seemed to be further away than it had been.

"It's okay, Abs, I'm here," he said, brushing her hair back from her brow softly. "You're burning up, love. You've got some sort of fever."

Connor stood up and looked around him. What way had they been facing? That way, surely: he could feel the breeze on his face again. He knelt back down and cupped Abby's face in his hands.

"Okay, listen, Abby, we need to get you out of here. Now I think I can see a light up ahead, so I'm going to go check it out. I won't be long, I promise."

There was no reply. Swearing silently, Connor held his hand over Abby's mouth and nose, waiting with baited breath. After the longest moments of his life he felt a movement of air there and breathed a sigh of relief. Pushing himself to his feet, he turned back in the direction of the breeze and hurried forwards, hoping that the light he had told Abby about would be just around the next bend.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Ah, Doctor Page," Lester drawled, looking up from the papers in his hands. "How nice to see you looking so... tranquil."

Sarah took a deep breath and avoided the temptation to turn and glare at Becker. Instead she looked from Lester to the young woman standing on the opposite side of the room. The girl looked younger than herself, maybe ages with Abby, maybe a little older. She was a skinny little thing with long, straight, mousy brown hair and large hazel eyes. Sarah looked back to Lester.

"Doctor Page, Captain Becker," Lester began, rising to his feet. "Allow me to introduce Doctor Margaret Bowman, doctor of philosophy, Cambridge. Doctor Bowman is our new physicist and computer expert."

"Please, call me Meg," the younger woman smiled nervously. "We heard you needed a replacement computer geek with a sideline in theoretical physics, so, here I am."

Sarah gritted her teeth and heard the intake of breath from Becker on her other side.

"Well, not that I can replace your friend, of course, I mean..." Doctor Bowman stopped babbling and sighed. "Oh, I have put my foot in it, haven't I. I'm so sorry."

"Well, now that introductions are over, Doctor Page, I expect you'll be wanting to show Doctor Bowman the lab and bring her up to speed on our current developments. I haven't quite had the chance to explain the project to her yet. I'm sure Captain Becker and yourself will manage to fill in the details admirably."

Lester's eyes dropped down to the papers again, a sign that the interview was over. Sarah stood her ground, unmoving.

"Was there something else, Doctor Page?" Lester asked without looking up.

"I want to go through the racetrack anomaly," Sarah stated, defiant.

"Under no circumstances," Lester replied tersely.

"What's an anomaly?" Doctor Bowman asked, her brow wrinkling.

"You took this job without knowing what anomaly is?" Sarah asked, disbelief written all over her features.

"She's not the first," Lester sighed, "is she Captain?"

Becker was spared the challenge of reply by the blaring sound of the anomaly detector klaxon.

"My, what perfect timing!" Lester quipped, his eyes still perusing the wordy document in his hands. "Now you won't have to worry about explaining, Doctor, you can just show her instead. Off you go."

Rolling her eyes in a silent plea to the Almighty, Sarah turned on her heel and stormed out of the room. She could hear the hurried footsteps of the girl following her and sensed, rather than heard, the swift stride of Becker following the girl. Becker's presence was confirmed when he called down to the atrium floor for co-ordinates, then brushed past them, issuing orders to his men over his radio.

"What's happening?" Doctor Bowman's voice piped up from behind Sarah.

"Oh, just you hold tight and keep up," Sarah sighed, turning to face the new girl. "You'll find out soon enough."

XXXX

Danny held up a hand to shade his eyes from the bright sunlight that was now dazzling him. He had lost count of the number of mossy trees he had squeezed moisture from on the way from the clearing to the edge of the forest, but it was certainly dozens. He stood looking out at the sand covered beach in front of him. To his left there was sand. To his right there was sand. Behind him lay the forest. Before him lay the beach. Beyond the beach, he could make out shimmering blue water and, close enough to make out the beach and tree line, another island. The island in the distance looked small and flat. As far as the island he was on was concerned, it had been flat so far, but Danny couldn't say with any certainty that it was all like that. He couldn't say how large it was either. All he could say was, if this island had a river or stream of any kind, any outlet of fresh water would have to cross this beach to get to the sea before him. Turning to his right, away from the blinding sun, he began to follow the tree line round the island.

XXXX

Connor slumped down in the tunnel entrance and breathed a deep sigh of relief. There had been no light round the first bend, nor the second or third, but finally he had seen it. It had taken him at least another hour, an hour he wasn't entirely sure Abby could spare, but he had made it out of the tunnel. Well, not out exactly, not yet, but to the end of it at least.

He looked down the small cliff that cut away sharply from the tunnel entrance. He wouldn't be able to carry Abby down there, not unconscious. He wasn't even sure he could get down there himself. Luckily, he didn't have to. Not yet, anyway. He could reach the precious water he'd been in search of just by stretching out his arm. He pulled the water bottle from his pack and held it out under the flowing stream of the waterfall that covered the entrance to the tunnel system. The force of the water pushed his arm down to an awkward angle, but he managed to hold it there long enough to collect half a bottle's worth. He poured some over his face and drank the rest, then held the bottle out again to refill it.

If he could move Abby closer to the tunnel entrance, he could keep her cool just by pouring water over her. The current of air created by the falling water would help the moisture evaporate and lower her temperature faster than just the water itself. The waterfall was also hiding them, giving them some degree of safety from the predators outside.

Predators.

Every niche has its predators, he thought. He hadn't been able to see much in the tunnels, but now that some light filtered through from the other side of the water, he could see some damp mosses growing up the walls of the tunnel. Undoubtedly there would be something to eat the moss, and where there's prey, there's predators.

Bottle filled, Connor picked himself up and began the dark journey back to Abby's side. If he could get her to wake up, even just long enough to take a few sips of water, he'd be happier. Long enough to walk with him to the waterfall would be better, but he didn't think that hope would stand up to much testing.

XXXX

Doctor Margaret Bowman peered, mouth open, at the shining, shimmering anomaly in front of her. She leant towards it, drawn like the various metallic objects the team around her had already learnt to tie down. She'd already spotted the magnetic field of the anomaly when the pen in her hand had been wrenched away from her. Now she was taking notes with a pencil.

"What have we got?" Captain Becker barked at one of his operatives positioned at a laptop.

"We're on the last of the samples, sir," the soldier replied. "That's it. The rover is heading back now."

"Get the locking mechanism ready!" Becker called to another of his men then picked up his radio. "Search teams. Status update."

"Beta team reporting, sir. All clear," came the first reply.

"Gamma team reporting, sir. All clear here too."

"Delta team, is the perimeter in place?" Becker asked his radio.

"Delta team reporting, sir," was the response. "Affirmative, sir. Perimeter is set up."

"Delta team, maintain positions. Beta team, return to base. Gamma team, repeat building search."

Various army versions of "how high" were returned to Becker's orders to jump. Meg watched as the Captain walked over to her.

"If they're the beta, gamma and delta teams, where is the alpha team?" Meg asked as Becker stopped in front of her.

"We're the alpha team," Becker frowned and folded his hands behind his back. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to move back from the anomaly, Doctor Bowman."

"Oh, right," Meg stepped backwards once, then, seeing Becker's raised eyebrow, a few more times. When she stopped this time, he nodded.

"That's better," he said, walking towards her and past her. "Oh and look out for the rover when it comes back through. The magnetic field makes it difficult for the operator to maintain full control of it at first."

"The what?" Meg called, looking back over her shoulder as the Captain walked away.

A noise from the anomaly brought Meg's attention back to it just in time to avoid the hurtling mechanical shape that zoomed past like a pellet coughed up by an oversized owl.

Another noise sounded from the anomaly and, when Meg looked up this time, she saw that the shimmering shards had coalesced into a shining ball. She stepped forward again and reached out a hand to it.

"I wouldn't touch it while it's locked," came a voice from over her shoulder. Meg turned to see Doctor Sarah Page carrying a rectangular shape with a cover over it.

"Why not?" Meg asked.

"We don't know quite what the effect will be," Doctor Page answered. "It might unlock, or it might give you an electric shock, or it might just take your hand off. We just don't know."

"Oh, right."

"Worked out what it is yet?" Doctor Page asked wearily.

"Not entirely."

"Let me know when you do."

Meg hurried to catch up with the older woman, who was now walking away from her.

"That looks heavy," she said, indicating the contents of Sarah's arms.

"It's a specimen tank," Sarah replied. "It's more cumbersome than heavy really."

"I thought the specimens were on the rover?"

"Some of them are," Sarah nodded, "but any live ones we find are kept separate to be sent back after analysis."

"Sent back?"

"Apparently very important for the future evolution of the planet," Sarah sighed.

"What's on the other side of there?" Meg asked, pointing back at the anomaly.

"We don't know exactly," Sarah answered, setting the tank down on a trestle table. "Might be the future, might be the past. The only things we do know for certain is that it's this planet and it's not right now. Anything more than that we learn from our sample analysis."

"And what do these samples tell you?" Meg waved a hand at the tank.

"Well," Sarah began, "I'm guessing we'll have to rely on the carbon dating of the rover samples, because frankly I haven't a clue what this is!"

As she spoke, Doctor Page pulled the cover off the specimen tank to reveal a long, flat, caterpillar-like creature with a bright blue stripe down its back, hundreds of fleshy little legs protruding from its sides and a long, stalk-like antenna with a round red ball on the end of it sticking out of the top of what appeared to be its front end.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Connor slumped back against the wall of the tunnel. It had taken all his reserves of strength just to get this far. He'd lost track of time, but the light outside was fading fast now. Was it just one day since they had woken up in that tree? It felt longer. Could a full twenty four hours and more have passed since that fateful fall? Abby was still unconscious. The fever still burned through her veins. They were no nearer to finding a way home where she could be pumped full of antibiotics and life-giving water and soluble food.

They were safe though. In relative terms. For the moment. She was still alive. For the moment. Laid out where the spray of the waterfall just reached her, doused in water and her head resting on a folded blanket from Becker's pack, Abby slept. He had carried her there, a distance of at least two miles, in utter darkness. She hadn't been as heavy a burden as Cutter, but the road had been longer and darker, and the sheer uncertainty of her fate dragged at his heart until he felt it would tear itself out of his chest.

He had only left her once since then, chancing his way down the cliff in search of some dry kindling to light a fire with. He'd taken the backpack, to keep the wood dry, and had filled it with whatever he could find that would burn, or might be edible or otherwise useful. He'd left the contents of the pack wrapped in his jacket, by Abby's side. He could have used the other emergency blanket, but if she woke up while he was gone he wanted her to know he was coming back. The jacket was a sign of that.

Now he was back. Abby showed no signs of having woken up. The impromptu parcel of all their worldly goods had not been disturbed. All he needed to do not was get himself and the backpack further into the tunnel and build a fire, in the dark, with no matches, no lighter and not even a working torch to see what he was doing. He was so tired. If he could just sleep for a while, just a little while, and get his strength back.

Connor forced his eyes open.

He couldn't rest yet, not yet. He had to make the fire first. Abby might be running a temperature, but he wasn't. Add together the chill of the evening, a cold, damp cavern and a soaking from climbing up and down through a waterfall and you have the perfect recipe for hypothermia. He was no good to Abby dead.

Dragging himself to his feet, Connor made his way over Abby's sleeping form and further into the tunnel. Once the ground felt suitably dry, and he felt he was far enough away from Abby, he put the pack down and got to work. It took him a good half hour at least to put the fire together, wishing all the while he had paid more attention on those camping trips with the scouts when he was younger. Eventually he decided it was ready. Enough kindling to take a light, not too much fuel to overwhelm it, and nothing possibly edible mixed up in the middle of it. He reached into the pack and pulled out one of the heaviest objects he had found, reaching into his pocket and extracting his penknife with the other hand. He wasn't sure if it would work. He'd never even seen it done before. Unfortunately, however, he was out of options.

The rock in his hand was flint. He could tell it was flint because it had broken and split to reveal its flinty insides. The penknife in his other hand was steel. He tried scraping the knife attachment over the stone a few times. Other than a scraping sound, nothing much happened. He tried scraping the knife lengthways. Nothing. He sighed. He was so tired. If only they'd had a lighter, but then neither of them had smoked. Abby had always been so much of a health freak he doubted she'd ever even considered trying it. He had, in his schooldays, once, and been violently sick afterwards. If only he hadn't been so much of a quitter!

His tired brain, begging for sleep, suddenly went ping. Lighter. There was something there. Something he was missing. What? He was so tired. What was it? He dropped forward onto his hands and hissed as raw flesh scraped against the rocky floor. That was it: friction. Friction caused the change from kinetic energy to heat energy. He needed more friction. Picking up the penknife again, which he had dropped in frustration, he fiddled with the appendages, dragging each one out of its secure hiding place until he found the rasp. That was it. That was what he needed. He felt around for the flint, also dropped in his despair, and found it lying by his bad knee. In the stress and strain of the day he had forgotten about that injury. Now it came back to him with aching reality and he groaned, wincing as he shifted himself into a more comfortable position.

Again, he struck the steel against the stone. Again nothing. A different angle, perhaps? Yes! This time a single, solitary spark burst forth in the now complete darkness. He held the rudimentary tools closer to the kindling and tried again. More sparks this time! Finally! Again! This time one or two of them caught, smouldering redly in the darkness. Again! More sparks caught. He breathed on the glowing embers, blowing more oxygen their way and fanning the sparks until they grew into flames. Small flames, but flames. The flames spread. He added more twigs, feeding the fire until it was large enough to light the tunnel from side to side. He could feel the warmth from it now, seeping into his body as it dried his still damp clothes. He sighed in relief, and crumpled into an exhausted heap beside the flames.

XXXX

Danny hit his head off the mossy trunk of the nearest tree. He'd done it again. A full circle of the island, but still no fresh water. Why he expected there to be some the second time round, he didn't know! It hadn't taken him long to work out he was better off following the tree line round, gathering water from the spongy moss into his water bottles as he went, but for some reason rational thought on the subject of streams was still eluding him.

He had to do something. He couldn't survive here indefinitely. The water from the moss might keep him going for a while, but without a food source he'd eventually starve. There was no stream on the island. He was sure of that now. He had accepted that fact. Fine. If there was no stream on this island, then he would have to try and make it to another island. Okay. He could do that. The other island he had seen wasn't far. It was the only other one he'd seen so far, but it wasn't far away and it looked a bit larger than the one he was currently on. Right. Sorted. Get to the other island. That was the plan.

How?

He could swim, that wasn't the issue. He had always been a strong swimmer. Even in his currently weakened state, he could probably swim the distance between the two islands: it really wasn't that far. In fact, if he waited until the tide went out, and the sea was shallow enough, he might even be able to walk it!

The only problem lay in what he might find in the water. He hadn't seen any non-plant life forms on his island, but that didn't mean there weren't any in the water, or on the other island. He would have to be prepared for the possibility.

He couldn't make a raft from what was lying around. Not without any tools. He wasn't that much of a Robinson Crusoe. He could make a spear though. The trees he had been stealing water from could also provide him with that.

He reached up and fastened his hand around one of the long straight branches reaching out from the nearest tree trunk. By putting all his weight on it, he managed to break it away from it's life source. The screeching sound it made as it finally gave way hurt his head, but it was soon gone and the silence of the island returned, broken only by the soft wash of the waves on the shore.

XXXX

"What do you mean you have no idea!" Lester's irritated tones rang out through the office above the atrium. "You're a scientist aren't you? Look it up! You must have some big book of weird creatures or something! What does it look like? If you can't find an exact match, you can at least try and work out what it's evolved from!"

"Nothing like this has ever been documented, Lester," Sarah sighed. "It might be something completely brand new in the future, or something remarkably old in our own history. There's just no way of telling."

"Isn't there anything in this fossil record Professor Cutter was so fond of?"

"Nothing, Lester, nor is there likely to be," Sarah folded her arms. "I'm no zoologist, or palaeontologist, but any student of archaeology knows only a fraction of what was once there gets preserved. This could be something the fossil record missed entirely, just by chance, or there might be some reason why we have no known fossils of it, or perhaps a future awaits us where bizarre fleshy creatures with no bones and no recognisably developed sense organs are the order of the day, I just don't know!"

Lester looked over to Meg, who was watching nervously from a corner. She shook her head and shrugged, her eyes wide. Lester transferred his gaze to Becker, who was staring solidly at the wall opposite, and gave up.

"Fine," Lester sighed. "I will find you a zoologist, palaeontologist or evolutionary something or other. Just try not to get us all killed in the mean time, will you?"

Her arms still folded, Sarah Page turned and stalked out of the room, followed by a hurrying Meg and a calmly striding Becker. So she was being asked to do the job she'd been hired for? Fine. That job was to study the anomalies and help out at the incursions, not identify bizarre, slimy creatures from the black lagoon of time and space. She'd been hired to help Cutter, not replace him. As far as she could make out, the mouse, as she'd decided to call her, had been hired to replace Connor, but only in his IT capacity. Becker had been there before Sarah, but she knew he'd been hired to replace someone. He's assumed leadership of the group though, at least over the incursion side of things, and that hadn't been his job either. If Lester wanted a fully functioning team he would just have to bite the bullet and pay for one.

Sarah let the door fall closed behind her, hearing the cessation of the small hurrying footsteps that had tried and failed to keep up with her. She could do without more inane questions for the moment. The girl was meant to be a genius with theoretical physics: she could go and work out the anomalies herself without trying to prise information of Sarah that just wasn't there. How was she meant to know what caused the anomalies? How was she meant to know what happened if you got stuck on the other side of one? Or halfway through one? She'd never experienced either of the last two and she didn't know anyone who could explain the first. Not even Connor! And she was an Egyptologist, for pity's sake. She had a rudimentary knowledge of physics at best, and that was just high-school stuff!

XXXX

On the outside of the door, Doctor Meg Bowman paused, watching it slam shut in her face. She heard a footstep behind her and turned to see the tall, dark Captain come to a halt a meter or so away from her, his hands behind his back and his back straight, his face a stony mask.

"You don't like me very much do you?" Meg asked timidly. "Doctor Page doesn't either. I think I ask too many questions. It annoys her." Silence. "I'm sorry about your friends. Really, I am. I wish I could help get them back, but I just don't know how. Doctor Page is avoiding me. You don't speak unless it's to give an order, or accept one from Sir James. And there's no point asking Sir James anything as he's far too busy and has already passed the job on to you and to Doctor Page!"

Becker's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly Meg took a hesitant step towards him.

"Tell me how I can help! Please!" Meg begged, hugging her arms around her slight frame. "There's no point in me being here if I can't help!"

"You're here to study the anomalies," Becker replied curtly, his eyes stubbornly set on a point over the top of Meg's head. "You have your own lab, your own access to the mainframe and all the information we have is on there. I suggest you use it."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The swim had been uneventful. Danny lay back on the beach letting the sun dry his damp clothes. Most of the distance between the two islands he had covered by wading. It had just been the bit in the middle, where the sea floor beneath him dropped suddenly away only to reappear just as suddenly some hundred yards further on, that he had had to swim across. His pack had stayed on his back, holding the precious water he had collected, what remained of his meagre resources and the broken ended spear he had taken from the island tree.

He rolled on to his front. Couldn't sit there lazing around all day. He had work to do. People to save. Pushing himself to his knees, he got up and staggered inland.

XXXX

"You're not being fair, Sarah," Becker's voice was soft, but the words were still too harsh for Sarah's ears.

"You're the one refusing to speak to her," she shot back, waving a hand over her shoulder as she stared at the kettle, willing it to boil. "You turn into some sort of robot every time she talks to you. I've seen more animated sarcophagi!"

"I'm just maintaining my professionalism," Becker shrugged, leaning back against the lockers whose names Sarah refused to let him change. "She needs to know we're not all mad scientists!"

"I'm not mad!" Sarah rounded on him. "I'm just angry! Angry that we're being left to do everything ourselves! Angry that any help Lester does hire seems to be ineffectual and inexperienced! Angry that we've been denied the chance to even try and get back the only people who do now more about this stuff than us!"

"We have to face the possibility that the only person with more experience than us at this game is Sir James Lester himself, Sarah!" Becker said firmly, his muscles tensing with the effort of keeping his voice steady. "You're not the only one who misses them."

"Really?" Sarah stormed across the room until they were nose to nose. "I'm not the only one? Are you sure about that Captain? Because I'm the only person here who seemed particularly bothered about trying to get them back! I'm the only person here who has worked her fingers to the bone coming up with plans and ideas and strategies, mending and rebuilding that blasted model just so that Lester can shoot down every hope we have, every time glimmer that there's a chance we might get them back one day! And all the while you just stand there taking orders like some automaton with your damned military sangfroid!"

The first punch connected with Becker's chest. He let it. She needed to lash out at someone and better him than Lester. When the second punch arrived with a sob, he gathered her into his arms and held her there until the sobs began to subside. He couldn't recall seeing Sarah cry since Danny and the others had gone missing. All the while she had just been busy working on ways to get them back. All the grief and anger and frustration had been building up behind that, and now the dam had finally burst. He looked up at the sound of the door opening to see Meg's worried face appear around the edge of the door frame.

"S-Sir James wants to see us in his office," she stuttered, her eyes going from Becker to the back of Sarah's head pressed against the Captain's shoulder. "S-Sorry I-I didn't know you were..."

"Doctor Page is upset," Becker cut her off quickly. "Tell Sir James that we'll be along in a minute."

The door closed softly as Meg bobbed her way out of the room. Moving Sarah gently away from him, Becker looked down at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "I can always tell Lester you're ill."

Sarah nodded, dragging a handkerchief out of a pocket and drying her eyes.

"I'll be fine," she said, shoving the handkerchief back where it came from and reaching up to brush makeup off the black shirt Becker always seemed to wear on duty. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Becker raised an eyebrow and turned towards the door. Behind his back, Sarah rolled her heavenward and gave herself a sharp mental kick.

XXXX

Connor awoke with a start and a snort. What had woken him? Not the light, there was only the flickering glow of the flames from their fire. That hadn't changed. No more than it constantly did, anyway. He listened. No noise of skittering insects or scrabbling claws. Had he woke himself up with his own snoring? He'd done it before, apparently. Abby always found it amusing when he did.

Abby!

He rolled over and looked towards the waterfall. She was still there, lying just as he'd left her. The faint glow of moonlight reflecting through the moving curtain of water outlined her recumbent form. Suddenly Connor froze. Not just as he'd left her. Not quite.

Scrambling to his feet, he hurried to her side. Yes, he was certain now. She'd moved. He'd folded her arms over her abdomen. The left one, the arm closest to him, was now on the ground. Had it fallen? Or had she moved it? Was she coming out of her coma? Had the fever subsided? He pressed a hand to her forehead. It wasn't quite as hot as it had been. Whether that was the effect of the water and the breeze, or whether her body was really starting to win the battle going on inside it, he couldn't tell, but the pulse at her neck felt a little stronger and her breathing seemed deeper and more regular.

"Abby?" Connor's voice trembled. Could he wake her? Should he wake her? But he had to try. "Abby, love, can you hear me?"

"Conn?" Abby's voice was faint and husky, but to Connor it seemed like sweetest music he had ever heard.

"Oh, thank God," he breathed, hurriedly leaning over her and unwrapping the folds of his jacket that hid the remains of their supplies. Pulling out a bottle of water, he lifted Abby into his arms and held the bottle to her lips. "Drink this my love, it'll help."

Obediently, Abby took a few sips from the bottle, then pulled back from it and looked up at Connor's half-shadowed face.

"What did you just call me?" Abby croaked, wondering if she was still half delirious from the fever. Connor called everyone "love" when he was worried about them, but she'd never heard him say "my love" before. She heard the intake of breath as he realised what he'd said and watched him turn nervous eyes down towards her. "It's alright, you know," she continued, raising a hand to his face, "I love you too."

As Abby slumped back in Connor's arms in yet another faint, Connor's mind reeled. Had that just happened? Was she still delirious? Was he delirious? Was he still asleep? He poured some of the water over his head and decided he wasn't and the water was very cold. He looked down at Abby. Her breathing was steady. Her pulse was steady. She was sleeping, her body exhausted by the illness and the lack of nourishment. She would need food when she woke up, he decided, refilling the water bottle and repackaging the resources in his jacket. Decent food, not prehistoric mushrooms, nuts and berries. Fish might be good: there was a pool at the bottom of the waterfall large enough to hold a veritable banquet of fish. Eggs would be better. His mother had always prescribed chicken soup for any illness, but that was one thing he was fairly sure he couldn't get. He didn't really fancy his chances stealing a dinosaur egg either, but at least he'd only need one to feed the pair of them. Whatever he caught, he thought, he wasn't going to catch it at night. Not when everything out there at this time could see better than him in the darkness. He'd need tools, though. That much he could do by firelight.

Pulling the pack and its contents towards him, he made his way back to the fire, feeding it with more sticks to build it up again and give him enough light to work by. He looked up as a movement on the edge of the firelight caught his eye, but there was nothing there.

XXXX

"Ah, finally," said Lester without looking round as the door opened to admit Becker and Sarah. "So good of you to join us. Do sit down."

Like errant schoolchildren, Becker and Sarah took their places in the two unoccupied chairs left in the room, other than Lester's. The chair next to Sarah was the one Becker had taken. On his other side, she saw Meg, sitting staring at her folded hands. On the far side of Meg was a man Sarah did not recognise. Another replacement, she decided. The man was older than her, maybe ages with Cutter, of stocky build and with a well trimmed full beard and moustache and rectangular framed glasses.

"It has come to my attention," Lester began, "that some people in this room do not believe I am doing enough in my capacity as leader of this research centre." Sarah resisted the urge to glare at Meg. "I would therefore," Lester continued, still without turning round, "to make a number of points clear.

"Firstly, and most importantly, might I point out that, contrary to popular opinion and general appearances, I am not indifferent to the fate of our missing team members. I do, however, have to maintain some kind of normality here and make sure that those funding and monitoring this facility believe that we are still capable of undertaking those duties of paramount importance to the nation. Namely: protecting it's people from the threats posed by the anomalies.

"Secondly, I would like to point out that, unlike anyone else in this room, I have been through this before. While we could send teams through every anomaly on the off chance that it may contain our lost friends, the only anomaly likely to do so thus far is the most dangerous that we have ever encountered and I will not risk losing the only operatives I have left with any knowledge of how these things work.

"Thirdly, and finally, in answer to various and numerous protests," at this point Lester turned and looked directly at Sarah, "I have engaged the services of Professor Grant Mackenzie, whom you see seated at the far end of my office, Doctor Page. Professor Mackenzie is a professor of Paleo-biology. He has worked with Professor Cutter in the past and I believe they studied some of the same courses together at university. He is therefore familiar with Professor Cutter's theories on evolution and most definitely able to fill the post of 'zoologist, palaeontologist or evolutionary something' you were so eager that I advertise!"

XXXX

Danny opened his eyes to bright white light and winced. He tried to raise a hand to shield his eyes, but found it was tied down. Experimentally, he tried his other three limbs. They were also restrained. He tried to move his head. That was immobile also. Inwardly, he started swearing.

Slowly, letting them get used to the light, Danny tried opening his eyes again. That at least was working. Not that the view he got from it helped much. Above him, a white, featureless ceiling stretched out as far as he could see in three directions, meeting a white, featureless wall behind him.

So he was indoors, he concluded. That meant one of three things had happened. Either there were intelligent humans of some description in the time zone he had wandered into and they had scooped him up and brought him back here for whatever purpose they might choose, or the others had finally found a way to rescue him and he was back in the ARC medical wing being checked for mystery ailments and pumped full of antibiotics, nutrients and saline, or he had actually died the last time he passed out and had, as his mother had often warned him he would, gone straight to hell.

The light above Danny dimmed slightly as a tall form drew closer to him and into his line of sight. Ah, he thought: not the ARC then.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It had taken time for Danny to get used to the tall forms that fussed over him night and day. He had worked out, he thought, that they were future humans. Either that or he was the only person to fall through two - no, four! - holes in time and then get abducted by aliens!

Maybe that was where all those alien abduction stories came from? Maybe they weren't aliens, just future humans, making use of the anomalies to study the history and evolution of their species. Granted, they weren't exactly like the typical Speilberg/X-Files noseless, big-eyed, grey-skinned alien, but they were close!

Their skin wasn't grey for starters: it was much more like a slightly tanned version of Danny's own. The noses were still there, albeit smaller and straighter. And they did wear clothes, unlike your average Hollywood alien. The eyes were big though. Not black, not entirely, but definitely larger than any eyes Danny had ever seen. They were almond shaped and slightly slanted most of the time, although Danny sometimes spotted different shapes and angles. Any differences he did spot, though, were almost always in those individuals who seemed subservient. Some things never change, he thought.

After what seemed to be two days, although with no windows in view it was difficult to tell, Danny felt the straps binding his limbs and head being released. Opening eyes now used to the bright white glare above him, Danny looked up to see an individual he could only describe as male. The man's eyes were the customary shape, size and angle, so Danny presumed he was somebody of importance, perhaps the person in charge of his current predicament.

Looking over his shoulder, the man spoke. The words were unfamiliar to Danny and the person being spoken to was out of his eye line, but their content became apparent when another form appeared at his other side and, together with the first man, began to lift him into a sitting position. Once he got the idea, Danny pushed himself up and moved back to lean against the head of the bed. From this new position, he could see much more of the room he was in. It was a single room with white walls, ceiling and floor. There was the outline of a door off to his left, but no sign of a handle for it.

With a wave of his hand, the future-man dismissed his aide, who returned to a position by the door Danny had just spotted. Danny looked up at the man by his bedside.

"I don't expect you can understand me," he began, folding his arms, "or I you, but any chance of an explanation here?"

"As it happens, I can understand you," the man answered, his voice low in pitch and soft in volume. "Ancient languages, especially those which gave rise to our own, are a hobby of mine."

XXXX

"All I'm saying is that he gives me the creeps," hissed Sarah as she refilled nutrient bank in the automatic watering system for the plant lab.

"Just because he took one look at the recordings of that thing and said 'oh, that's just an early form of opabinia' does not make him evil, Sarah," Becker sighed wearily, his back to the closed door of the environmentally controlled lab.

"Cutter would never have dismissed a creature like that so easily!"

"There wasn't much he could do about it bar give us a time-zone: we'd already had to send it back!"

"Connor would have been as high as a kite to see one!"

"Nobody has ever seen anything so old before, ever," said Sarah, fastening the lid on the nutrient bank and turning to face Becker. "The guy has spent most of his life studying this stuff from books, theories and fossils. Now he's just taken a job where we get to tell him we have a live one on camera and the certainty of more out of time creatures thanks to massive rips in time that he's allegedly never heard of before. You'd expect a bit more excitement from him!"

"He worked with Cutter. They were friends. How do you now Cutter never mentioned this stuff to him? Asked his advice on occasion?"

"Then why hasn't he mentioned it to us?"

"He's not supposed to know: Cutter signed the official secrets act!"

"I'm just saying it's a little weird!"

"No, you're just finding fault with everyone Lester brings in here because, no matter how qualified they are, they'll never quite match up to Danny," Becker replied firmly, walking towards her. "That's the problem, Sarah. I know you had feelings for him, but Danny is gone and there's nothing we can do here to bring him back except wait and pray! The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on and start doing our job properly again!"

Sarah pushed past him without answering and stormed out of the room, pausing only to attempt to slam the door, then pick up her jacket and bag from her desk.

XXXX

Connor picked at the flaking fish in front of him. Catching it had taken some time, but he'd managed it. After a few hours by the pool he had finally speared his first fish. After that, the next two were relatively easy. He'd collected some large leaves that reminded him of banana leaves. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could remember somebody on a documentary or cookery program or something using banana leaves to eat off of and wrap food in to cook it. He'd gone for the first one, since it would have been difficult to dig an oven pit in a cave, and had opted for spitting his cleaned and gutted catch over the fire instead. He'd split the other two fish and hung them higher over the fire to dry and smoke. Refrigeration wasn't due to be discovered for another sixty five or so million years.

He'd gathered more firewood while he was out, and some roots, berries and nuts. There was no way of telling what was safe to eat without actually eating it, but he'd avoided things that looked like stuff he knew was poisonous. He would have to have a look round the tunnel system later, with a bit more light of course. There were definitely things living deeper in, but they were avoiding the heat and light from the fire, not to mention him. He'd spotted a few weird looking insects: mostly early cave crickets and suchlike, but a few that looked freakishly like the much larger Silurian scorpions Steven and Cutter had encountered so long ago. There was definitely something else though. Something with feet. Proper feet, not skittery insect feet. He'd spotted a damp footprint, when he got back with his precious supplies, just drying in the warmth of the low fire. Whatever it was hadn't come back since he'd been there, and it hadn't tried to eat anything as far as he could make out. That was good. That meant it had probably just risked passing the fire, and Abby, to get to the water.

He picked at the fish, hoping Abby would wake up, demanding food, before he finished it. It was silly, he knew. There was more fish there, smoking, and he needed to keep his strength up. It would be just like the thing, though, for him to finish his meal and set out in search of a new one just before she came round.

XXXX

"We can't stay here, Lena: we need to move."

"What makes you think they've found us?"

"Just trust me, okay! It's not safe here any more!"

A susurration of controversy permeated the darkened silence. In the faint greenish light of the overhanging bioglobes, people crowded into the small space like bats in a crevice. Their dark suits and amorphous hooded ponchos made it impossible to tell one shape from another, but two in the centre stood out. The first, and taller, form because she stood on a raised platform, her hood thrown back and her long, plaited hair curling round her head. The second, shorter, form because he stood looking up to the woman, his hood also back and the bioluminescent glow reflecting in his tawny hair and pale skin.

The woman climbed down from her plinth. She was still taller than the man, but only just. The crowd turned to watch as she led him off to one side.

"You can't just rush in here shouting orders, Kiran," said Lena quietly. "Even if they can't understand you, they can hear the urgency in your voice and that's scaring them! We can't do anything organised if you incite a panic!"

"There's been a development, Lena, things are happening in the high city," Kiran kept his voice low, even though Lena was the only person present who would, or should, be able to understand him. "I don't know what, but there are rumours that the kalif himself has been seen in the healing rooms. The imperial guard have been searching the city from the top down. They will get here eventually and, when they do, we cannot be found together!"

XXXX

She still hadn't woken up. Connor leant back against the wall of the cavern, his head in his hands. Could he risk leaving her? What if she woke up and he wasn't there? What if he wandered off down a side tunnel and couldn't find his way back to her? It could be a proper labyrinth in there!

Labyrinth.

Now that had been a great film! Bit weird at times, with the Jareth thing and all that, but still good.

There was another reason that word went ping.

What was it?

Oh yes: THE labyrinth. The Greek one. How to get out of it (and avoid being killed by whatever monster was hiding in the middle of it). Wool. A ball of wool.

Connor rummaged in the ever decreasing resources remaining from Becker's pack. Of course there wasn't any. Why would a soldier pack a ball of wool? To catch up on his knitting when things got boring? As if they ever got boring!

Dropping his head into his hands again, Connor froze. Of course, how could he be so dense. He had a ball of wool. Two in fact: one on each hand.

Digging a paper clip he'd been considering as a fishhook out of his pocket, he found the knot of wool that finished off the knitted glove and began unpicking. Once the knot was out, the rest began to unravel easily. Soon he had enough to tie one end to something. All he needed was something to tie it too. He could tie it to Abby, then she'd know he was at the other end of it, but if he tied it too tightly it might hurt her, or if he tied it to her wrist, then pegged down the bit around the fire with stones, she might move her wrist and break it.

He needed something solid to tie it to, that he wouldn't hurt, that could move around a bit and be attached to Abby. He frowned in thought, then looked down. The ring that always hung around his neck sat there quietly staring at him. It was strong. It wouldn't break. Abby would know he'd left it and he'd be back for it: he never went anywhere without it, except maybe the shower. It could hang around her neck as easily as it did his without being disturbed by any small movements she might make in her sleep.

He tied three knots through and around the ring before lifting Abby's head and placing it around her neck. There were plenty of extra stones in the cavern - he'd been collecting flattish ones to build stuff with - to pin the wool down a safe distance from the fire. With the paper clip and his penknife in his pocket, and a long branch from the fire acting as a torch, Connor set off into the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"They just don't listen to me, Rex!" Sarah sighed, scratching the lizard idly between the wings as he muched through the chopped fruit she had laid down for him. "Come to think of it, they never did anyway!"

Rex looked round and chirruped sympathetically, then went back to eating his long overdue dinner.

"Yeah, yeah, I know: you're hungry. I'm sorry Rex. I though Becker would have been round to feed you, or send someone round. Now he's another puzzle altogether. Every day, he just comes in to work, or is already there, and gets on with things like nothing's happened."

Rex finished his plate of food and hopped down into Sarah's lap, curling up there for a sleep.

"I mean, obviously," Sarah continued, "obviously things still need doing. Life goes on and all that. But I just wish I could get a little bit, just a little bit of emotion out of him. He never gets stressed, never gets angry. Not like me! He's just there! Always there! Strong and silent and solid and..."

Rex looked up and chittered reproachfully.

"Well, he is, trust me: I nearly broke a nail trying to make a dent in that chest..."

Rex stared meaningfully.

"Well, I know he's a little younger than me, but hey: a girl can dream! What are you going to do about it? Tell him?"

Rex stood up and looked as indignant as a flying prehistoric reptile can, then flew off up into the rafters. Ten seconds later, something green and slimy landed on Sarah's lap.

"Yeah, okay: that you can do!" Sarah groaned, reaching for the box of tissues. "I hope you realise that if any of this ends up on Abby's sofa or rug, she'll kill me when she gets back!"

The chittering sound that drifted down from the rafters sounded, to Sarah's ears, for all the world like distant laughter.

XXXX

Danny looked out at the gleaming cityscape before him. He was in the viewing tower of the kalif's palace, with a panoramic view all three hundred and sixty degrees around, but still nowhere near the highest point in the city. He'd looked down once, seen the glittering spires and towers disappear into the clouds below, felt dizzy and decided not to look down again.

The man who had spoken to him that morning was still there, behind him, watching he reactions and answering his questions. His name was Hisham, and he was the kalif: the ruler of the city. When Danny asked the name of the city, he was told it needed none, for it was the only city he would find in this world. Built on the largest patch of solid land remaining, the city stretched upwards as well as outwards to house the vast majority of the remaining population of the planet. Rising water levels had either drowned the rest of the land, or turned it into uninhabitable swampland. There were some small habitations, where the land could be drained enough to support a swamp farm or two, and a number of floating villages, dragging their living from the unending waters of the oceans. There were some small island chains, like the one on which Danny had been found, delirious, sunstruck, starving and dehydrated, and a few domed semi-underwater towns, but that was all.

Danny watched as a small shuttle buzzed past the window. Most of the buildings up here were connected by skyways: enclosed walkways bridging the gaps from one towering skyscraper to the next. Those that were not connected, directly anyway, could be accessed by a variety of shuttle flight paths, or, if you were rich enough, with your own personal shuttle. Shining doors shimmered as they rose to allow the shuttles access, like garages in the sky.

The ARC still existed, somehow. It was fully under the control of the kalif, though, and only his personally chosen team were allowed access to the building. That explained his hobby of learning ancient languages, then, Danny thought.

He turned to where the kalif was waiting. In the centre of the room was an elevator. It was the same one by which they had arrived in the viewing tower, bringing them up a distance of two hundred or so levels in less than a minute. Now they were heading down again, to the middle city - the part of the city in the cloud belt - to visit the upper areas of the current ARC buildings.

XXXX

Abby groaned. Her head ached and her stomach was complaining. She opened her eyes slowly, rubbing at them with one hand as she pushed herself up into a sitting position with the other. Slowly it dawned on her that there was no sudden rush to her side. No warm hands to help her and support her. Where was Connor?

She looked around. On one side of her, spraying her with a fine mist of cool water, was a waterfall. The dappled light reflecting and refracting through the water gave he enough light to make out the walls of the cave. She looked the other way, back into the tunnels. There was a fire burning low there, with two vaguely oval shapes hanging above it. There was a bundle by her side: Connor's jacket. Inside she found one of their bottles of water. She removed the lid and drank from it thirstily, gulping down almost the entire bottle in one go. Stretching out to the waterfall, she refilled the bottle and replaced the lid.

It was only then, leaning over to the fall, that she felt a tug around her neck and looked down. There was Connor's ring, the one he always wore, hanging round her neck. She lifted it and looked at it in confusion. Then she noticed something trailing from the ring. Wool. Black wool by the look of it.

"What are you up to now, Conn?" Abby muttered.

Getting up, then deciding she had better crawl for the moment, she followed the wool to the fire and the stones that pegged it round it. The oval shapes resolved themselves into two butterflied fish, now dried by the rising heat and smoke.

"Kippers for breakfast? I'm impressed!" Abby reached up and took one of the two fish down, breaking it into bitesized chunk and spitting out the bones.

Having finished her fish, and decided to leave the other for later, Abby started untying the wool, leaving it pegged securely in place by the stones. Only as an afterthought, did she turn back, pick up the pack made from Connor's jacket, with the refilled water bottle in it, wrap the other fish in a leaf that was lying there and lift a branch from the fire, and one from the wood pile nearby.

XXXX

"Yes, sir, I fully understand the implications," said Lester to the wall in front of him.

A voice buzzed in his earpiece.

"Of course, sir, they are our top priority."

Another buzz from the earpiece.

"Indeed sir. I simply wonder if you would consider my proposal. As much as I appreciate the extra help at a time like this, we cannot deny that Mr Temple and Miss Maitland at the very least are exceptional resources and should not be simply discounted as they have been..."

This time the buzzing interrupted Lester and went on at some length.

"Certainly sir. Monitoring and dealing with the anomalies does not take up every minute of every day, however. Would you at least see your way to a compromise? If the search for our missing... employees were to be carried out only in our own time?"

The buzzing, this time, was slightly louder.

"Very good, sir. I understand fully. Thank you, sir."

Lester withdrew the earpiece from his ear and threw it down onto the desk before him with a long sigh. It had been almost a month now. Page was going crazy. Becker was getting stonier by the day. The general populus of the ARC staff treated him as if he were some sort of leper, although technically, they'd always done that...

It had only taken two weeks for Cutter and Stephen to find their way back. They'd had enough trouble doing so, and they'd both been trained in field and survival skills! DC Quinn seemed able to take on just about anything, but what about Connor and Abby? Abby might be all right, but Connor couldn't make himself a ham sandwich if the bread wasn't sliced! At least not without turning the entire kitchen upside down and spilling tea on the antique Persian rug!

Lester sighed again and pressed his fingers to his eyes. He had another headache coming on. Probably a migraine. That meant one of three things: either it was going to thunder, or there was going to be some anomaly related emergency, or Doctor Page was about to have another hissy fit.

Just as his hand got to the box of pills in his top drawer, the phone on Lester's desk rang. He closed the drawer again and picked up the receiver, thinking that at least this way he'd have the pleasure of slamming it down again when the PM finally left him alone. He put the receiver to his ear and listened. His face froze. The colour drained from it. He took a deep breath before replying in the steadiest and most measured tones he could manage.

"What do you mean 'the racetrack anomaly has closed'?"

XXXX

Connor's torch was burning low. Mentally, he kicked himself for not bringing a spare. He would have to go back soon anyway: he was nearly down to the fingers of his second and last glove. He had found a side tunnel, however, that sloped downward. There was a freshness to the air that he hadn't felt in a while and he was sure there was a sliver of light up ahead.

He had spotted a few things on his trip through the tunnels. Most of them were invertebrates of one form or another: arachnids, insects, slimy things... What had really caught his attention, though was the little furry things keeping just out of the light.

They looked a bit like a cross between an echidna, but with fur, and a shrew, but with longer whiskers. Whatever they were, they were definitely mammals! The first mammals, perhaps! His and Abby's and everyone else's ancestors! He'd tried to make sure he didn't step on any after that idea popped up in his head!

The sliver of light was definitely getting brighter now. It was definitely an opening too, not some colony of sickly green glowing bacteria or fungi. He came to the end of his glove. He couldn't just leave it lying here: he'd never find it again! Blowing out the remains of the torch, he tied the end of the wool around the burnt branch and placed it down on the ground.

"Now, no chewing at this," he told whatever furry proto-mammals that might still be hanging around. "It's very important."

Turning back to the light, he made his way the last few feet and out into an almost bare hollow in the land. There was a collection of dead wood in the middle of it that attracted Connor's attention. Good firewood was always welcome! As he made his way over to the pile, he spotted something else glinting in the sunlight.

It took a little bit of work, shifting twigs and sticks and half-branches, but soon he had the small, metallic object out. As soon as he'd got a good look at it, he'd known what it was. Now it was in his hands and he could hardly believe it. Helen must have dropped it: she had the only other one he'd ever seen. But would it work?

So intrigued and absorbed in the device, Connor missed the tiny little sounds that should have warned him of appraoching danger. The scattering of small feet. The silence suddenly pressing down on the surrounding forest. The prehistoric cry of an angry pteranodon bent on removing a threat from its nest. Only when he felt the movement of air behind him did Connor turn round, and by that time it was far too late.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

She was being silly. She knew she was being silly. It was just some weird coping strategy or something. She'd been able to ignore it up to now, well, most of the time she had, anyway. Somehow talking to Rex, or at least saying it out loud, had made it worse, not better. Now she couldn't ignore it.

It was just because they'd been through so much together, just the two of them. They were the last two standing. Maybe it was that... What was it called again? Transparence? Transfers? Transference. That was it. The attraction she'd had for Danny, now that he wasn't here, was being transferred to the only remaining link she had with him. That was it. That made sense. That was a clear, scientific, logical reason for her acting like a silly teenager. If she just made a conscious effort to put her ridiculous infatuation to one side, she would have nothing to worry about. She was a grown woman after all! She had a PhD! She was perfectly in control of her emotions.

Sarah Page walked up to the bannister overlooking the atrium and nodded to herself. That was a plan. Just ignore the infatuation and it would go away. She looked down at the bustling crowd below. She'd obviously missed something while she was out: everyone was busy doing something and that almost never happened! At the centre of the hustle and bustle she spotted Becker and the two new recruits. The captains hair was uncharacteristically ruffled.

Sarah Page gave herself another mental kick and told herself to focus.

XXXX

The place was a maze, Danny decided. Every corridor he walked through, every room he entered, they were all almost completely identical. Sometimes, the only difference was in the actual fixtures and fittings, not that there were ever many of those! Hidden lighting illuminated every corner with a uniform white glow. What furniture there was was all a mixture of silver metal and white fabric. Doors slid easily aside as they were approached. The only artwork that adorned the walls were silver sculptures or elaborately cut and framed mirrors.

By far, however, the most bizarre and intriguing development Danny had spotted, so far, was the windows.

At first, they appeared to be made of glass. By putting a hand up to them, though, Danny had found them warm to the touch. The kalif, Hisham, had informed him that they were made using something called plas-tech. Whether the "plas" referred to plastic or plasma, Danny didn't ask: he wasn't sure he'd understand the answer anyway. Whatever it was, the substance was an excellent insulator, remarkably strong, even when thin, and could change from perfectly clear with a refractive index equal to that of air to perfectly opaque at the touch of a button. The button was, of course, pure white and flush with the wall, so it took Danny quite a while to spot it.

As they arrived in yet another white walled room, Hisham explained that they were now at the very outer reaches of his palace enclave. Once outside this area, guards would accompany them wherever they went. Danny was told not to worry, however, as there were only another three hundred levels to go down before they reached the level of the ARC.

XXXX

"What's going on?" Sarah asked, walking up to the huddled trio in the middle of the atrium.

Mackenzie and the mouse looked at each other, then at Becker. Sarah saw a flicker of something cross the captain's face just before he turned to her. What was it?

"Doctor Page," Becker began, in that formal tone that told Sarah she wasn't going to like this. "We've just had word from the crew we left at the racetrack anomaly."

"What is it? What's happened? Are they back?" Sarah's eyes widened in hope.

"The anomaly's closed," Becker took a step towards her, away from the others, as he saw the light go out in Sarah's eyes. He moved her over to a nearby chair and sat her down, kneeling next to her with his back to the group. "Sarah, I'm sorry. I couldn't find you when the call came through," he said softly. "We did everything we could to try and reopen it, but it's gone now. Our hands are tied."

Sarah covered her mouth with her hand and nodded, staring blankly off at a point on a desk across the room. After a moment, she dropped the hand and looked up.

"So what's all this then? Why the sudden activity?"

"We've got another one," Becker replied. "It's over in the zoo. There's been no report of panic yet, so we're hoping nothing's come through, but we're taking a full team anyway. You don't have to come: Meg and Grant can handle it."

"He's never seen an anomaly before and I doubt that little chit of a thing could handle a rampaging puppy!" Sarah said harshly.

"They'll have to learn then, won't they," Becker's tone was colder now, sterner. Sarah stood up.

"Fine," she said. "If and when you decide you do need me, I'll be in my office. Or Cutter's."

Becker rose to his feet as Sarah stormed off. Turning, he found Meg waiting patiently where he'd left her. She was looking at a map of the zoo and trying to look like she hadn't heard at least the last part of that exchange.

"I'm quite good with puppies, actually," she said as Becker approached. "It's kittens that don't seem to like me. So scratchy."

XXXX

It was difficult to storm out of a room crowded with people, thought Sarah as she made her way through the corridors of the ARC. Difficult, but not impossible. She couldn't take him being nice to her. It was infuriating! The soft voice, the steadying hand, and heaven help her if she dared look down into those eyes! Better she just keep out of his way. They didn't need her on this one anyway. He didn't need her. He'd said so.

Sarah stopped and leant back against the wall, her head in her hands. She wasn't even sure where she was now: the ARC was a maze at the best of times. She breathed deeply and tried to calm down.

As her breathing slowed, she became aware of a voice in the room behind her. It was difficult to make out the words, what with there being a wall in the way and everything, but the voice had a very definite accent. A Scottish accent. Mackenzie! Sarah pressed her ear to the wall and listened.

"It doesn't work like that! Not here. Not yet," said the voice. There was a pause before Mackenzie continued. "I need more time. I've only just got here." Another pause. "When I'm good and ready. You owe me, not the other way round, and don't you forget that!"

XXXX

Kiran pulled his poncho up, through the belt that held it together at his waist. In the low city, sanitation was optional. Rock-cut gutters, covered with quarried slabs, carried much of the waste of the city down and out to the marshes, but there was always some, especially in the dark, brick walled alleyways that ran through the low city like a warren.

The low city was exactly what it said it was: the lowest part of the great City, stretching from the bottom of the cloud layer to ground level, out of sight of the high city. In this city, social worth wasn't determined by whether you lived on the east side or the west, the north bank or the south. Instead, it was determined by how high up your dwelling place was. In the low city, amidst the dirt and detritus and stink, lived the low people. People who were not deemed fit enough, or perhaps human enough, to live in the upper reaches. People very, very similar to him.

The people of the low city were generally shorter than those of the high city, albeit still taller than Kiran himself. They had pale skin. Their hair colour and eye colour varied wildly. So to did body shape and the many facial features that people in the high city were so keen to control. People in the low city could marry for love, not genetics.

In the distance ahead of him, Kiran could make out the lights of one of the main thoroughfares, weaving its way through the low city like an artery in the depths of the body. Once he'd reached that, he could pick up the ground shuttle that had been left for him and make his way out to the marshes, and from there to the swamps. He'd need the shuttle for that. It was safer to hover-fly than walk out there. He'd have to be careful, though. Any unauthorised flights out to the swamp farms attracted the attention of the imperial guard. Any by him, a known rebel, would do more than raise elegant eyebrows in the palace.

XXXX

The pack was getting heavy and Abby was already on her second branch by the time she finally spotted the light in front of her. Eventually she came to the end of the thread of wool, tied around the burnt branch Connor had obviously used as a torch. She followed the light to the end of the tunnel, then froze.

Across the clearing in front of her was a pile of dry wood. In the middle of the pile sat a very large, very wary looking pteranodon. Sticking out from beneath the end of the pteranodon's outstretched wings was a very human, very recognisable leg. Connor's leg.

Abby caught the pack as is began to slip through her lax fingers, and sank to the ground, shuffling herself and the pack backwards into the tunnel. The torch in her hand burned low and she dropped it, hissing in pain. Blowing on her burnt hand, she placed the pack down quietly and edged forward again. The ancient reptile couldn't stay there all day, surely? Flying around looking for food took energy, especially when you were that size. Surely it would have to go off to hunt soon?

XXXX

The waiting had been almost unbearable. She was cold, her legs were cramped, her toes numb all from the inactivity, just sitting and watching and waiting, all day. Now, finally, she had a chance. The beast had flown off, its massive wings hitting Connor's inert body as it took to the air at last. Abby stretched, then half ran, half stumbled her way over to Connor's side.

What was he doing out here? How could he have been so careless? All the questions that had been running though Abby's mind, the questions that she'd dared to ask herself, anyway, were answered as soon as she arrived next to him. The anomaly device in his hand was unmistakable. She dropped to her knees beside him, ignoring the pain that shot up her legs as she did so, and put her hand to his neck. His pulse was there. He was breathing too. Abby let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding and thanked whatever unseen omnipotence had seen fit to keep them alive this far.

"Connor, can you hear me?" Abby whispered in his ear, hoping that dinosaur hearing wasn't as developed as that of modern predators.

No reply.

Glancing up and all around her, Abby decided she had only one option: get him back to the shelter of the tunnels. As carefully as she could, she checked him over for broken bones, then rolled him onto his back. It took her longer than she would have liked to drag Connor's dead weight across the open clearing to the tunnel entrance, but eventually she got him there.

There was no way she could get him all the way back to their camp, not yet, so the shelter provided by a bend in the rock wall would have to make do for now. She couldn't light a fire. The only food she had was the smoked fish and anything that might be in the backpack on Connor's back. She removed it and laid him down gently on the ground. The other water bottle was in there, still half full. She shrugged and poured some of it over his face: it worked in the flat. It worked here too. With a sputtering start, Connor woke up, tried to sit up and immediately groaned and clutched his head.

"Lie still," said Abby quietly. "Tell me where it hurts."

"Everywhere!" Connor moaned loudly.

"Quiet! We don't know what else is out there," Abby hissed.

"I think I could probably give you a list if you've got the time!" Connor muttered, his voice quiet though.

"Maybe later. What happened?"

"Picked a fight with a pteranodon. Lost."

"Yeah, I'd gathered that much Conn," Abby rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth twitching up into an unwilling smile. He really was irrepressible. "Did you fall or were you pushed? You've been out cold for hours, so you must have hit your head, but I can't find any blood, just a lump the size of a turtle egg."

"I think it was its wing," Connor experimentally tried sitting up again, winced, but persevered. "It knocked me over and I banged my head off one of those half trees it's got for its nest out there. I don't know, it happened too fast really."

"You got the anomaly device though," Abby picked it up and handed it to him. "It's Helen's isn't it? Will it work?"

"I don't know, I didn't get a chance to try it," Connor turned the device over in his hands. "There's not much outward damage to it, but who knows what it's like on the inside."

"Can we use it?"

Connor's eyes flicked from the device to Abby's ad back again. Suddenly a grin spread across his face.

"We can try!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The zoo was deserted. Well, this part of it was, anyway. It was still under construction. There hadn't been any sort of panic, at least not until two van loads of soldiers arrived, fully armed and followed by a beaten up Toyota Hilux. The ARC had already called through to the zoo to warn them of their impending arrival, and passed on some story about a bomb scare. The zoo officials were already quietly herding what few visitors there were off the premises, fixed grins apparent on every face. It was all going smoothly until two dozen armed men showed up.

Now they were up in the top corner of the zoo. It was being refurbished, apparently, for the arrival of a pair of sun bears the zoo was hoping to breed. The anomaly hadn't been too difficult to track down: it was shining out from the back of the carefully carved cave like a beacon.

They had already done one sweep of the area. Apart from the usual residents, there seemed to be nothing unusual. Anything that could have made its way through the anomaly could easily have made its way out of the semi-constructed enclosure, of course, but the only signs of life nearby were the birds flying overhead and the grizzly in the enclosure next door.

It was only once they'd locked the anomaly that Becker realised the enclosure next door was still under construction too.

"So it's just a bear then?" Becker frowned at Professor Mackenzie. "From our own timeline?"

"Not just a bear, no," the professor replied, edging closer to the rim of the unfenced enclosure. "Look at the shape of the head. The domed skull. My guess is it's a bit older than our bears. It looks like a cave bear. Middle to late Pleistocene era. Good at surviving ice ages. Treat it as if it has a permanently sore head."

"Oh good!" Becker raised an eyebrow. "Anything more useful back there, Prof? Like a suggested dose of tranquilliser dart?"

"If it's trying to hibernate, which it looks like it is, this should do the job," said the professor, passing a dart to Becker. "And call me Mack. Everyone else does."

"Okay," said Becker slowly, taking the dart and loading it. "And if its not hibernating?"

"I'll draw up the extra while you're taking aim."

"Thanks!"

The dart went in easily enough. The bear was sleeping when it hit. Very soon after, it was very much awake and very much annoyed. The dart may have gone in, but the thick hide of the bear meant that the tranquilliser had not. Soldiers scattered as the bear made a bee line for the anomaly enclosure.

"Any chance you could have warned me about that?" Becker snapped, pulling Mack out of the way as the bear charged past.

The professor was cut short in his reply by a scream from the direction of the anomaly. The locked anomaly.

"Meg!" Becker shouted, snatching up his gun and the remaining darts and running in the direction of the cry.

The bear was on its hind legs, advancing on the girl, torn between investigating her and trying to work out what was wrong with the light it had walked through. A noise from Becker, landing heavily in the enclosure, brought the bear round to face him. Gathering himself, the captain loaded the dart gun and took aim.

The first dart missed entirely, hitting the cave wall a scant foot above Meg's head as the bear dropped to all fours and charged. Becker felt the dart gun leave his hands before the second dart was fired. The first contact the bear made threw him sideways across the enclosure into the shallow, muddy pond being built there. Rolling left quickly, he avoided the second attack and got to his feet. He'd lost track of the gun and the darts.

"Unlock the anomaly!" he shouted to anyone who was listening. "Any time now would be good!"

Pelting out of the water, he picked up one of the steel fence supports that had been knocked over at some point. Turning, he dodged a paw the size of his head, the razor sharp claws catching on his upper arm and drawing blood. He swung the steel pipe sideways, catching the bear smartly on the side of its head. The vibration rung back through the pipe, knocking it out of his hands, and he scrambled backwards. He met rock wall.

The bear, stunned, paused, shaking its head. With a roar it reared up, it's fangs and claws bared. A sharp noise sliced through the air and the bear teetered. As it turned and lumbered off through the anomaly, now open and nearby, Becker saw the end of a tranquilliser dart hanging from an area of the bear's backside and winced at the exact location. The anomaly locked again, he sank to the ground.

"Remind me never, ever to annoy you," he muttered to Meg as she appeared holding the dart gun.

"It seemed likely to be the most vulnerable spot," Meg shrugged, putting the gun down. "You're hurt, let me take a look. I'm a qualified medic. They made us train at the gun club."

"You're in a gun club?" The disbelief was written all over Becker's face. The tranquilliser dart gun Meg had picked up was almost as big as she was!

"Projectiles was always my favourite area of physics in school!"

"Uh-huh!"

XXXX

Sarah watched the parade of soldiers that returned from the zoo anomaly. Two of them were carrying a stretcher. Becker was on the stretcher, his shirt off, his arm and ribs bandaged. Meg hurried along, trying to keep up with the soldiers. Professor Grant Mackenzie strode along calmly at the back. As Sarah was watching him, the professor looked up, waved, smiled and headed off in another direction out of the atrium.

"If they start singing 'Hail, the conquering hero comes', they're getting a pay cut," Lester drawled lazily from over Sarah's shoulder. "Word from the PM, Doctor Page. The rescue mission, as far as it ever was, has been officially cancelled." Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but Lester silenced her with a raised hand. "Unofficially, however, - and I do hope I do not have to stress that word too much! - what we each choose to do in our own time is our own business. I must add that, anomaly based emergencies not withstanding, therefore, I have issued a memo to the effect that all working hours in the ARC will now follow the conventional nine to five pattern. Do you understand me?"

Sarah closed her mouth and nodded.

"Try not to worry too much, Doctor Page," Lester sighed, turning away. "Connor Temple has been trying to get himself killed for years now. He hasn't succeeded so far, so there's no reason to suppose he will this time. And where there's life..."

Sarah looked back round to the atrium, suppressing a smile. The triumphant stretcher bearers had wound their way through the myriad of desks and out through the door towards the medical wing. Maybe she should go and see how he was. See if he needed anything. A new shirt perhaps...

XXXX

Well, the tour of the ARC had been interesting, Danny thought. For what it was, anyway. He'd only been allowed a brief glimpse of the inner workings and absolutely nothing of the labs. Can't have you taking future ideas back to your own time, Hisham had said: it might create a paradox. Danny wasn't sure what was so bad about those, but he had been assured they were dangerous things to mess with.

Now he had been given a bit of freedom. He didn't doubt he was being followed, but, after two days of the unbroken white walls of the palace and the hospital, he had demanded he be let out. Well, perhaps demanded was a bit strong. He had asked if he could explore the high city a bit and had been told that, if he was not back by dark, the imperial guard would be sent to fetch him. For his own safety of course!

Exploring had been fun though. Once you were out of the sterile hospital and the freakishly white palace, there was a bit more colour around. He was in some kind of pub or restaurant now. Whatever it was, it served food and alcohol. The translator he had been assigned had ordered a variety of city delicacies for him, but hadn't quite explained what was in them. They tasted all right anyway, Danny decided.

In front of him, he suddenly saw the translator's face change. The beneficent smile disappeared and a frown of consternation took its place. Other heads were turning now as well, and a pall of silence had descended over the crowded room.

Behind him, somebody demanded something. There was an answer. Not a meek one. Danny looked round. A tall elegant man was addressing a group of shorter people. These newcomers were closer to Danny's height, their eyes smaller and their noses more pronounced. They were obviously unwelcome.

"They are low citizens," his translator explained. "They live in the low city. They are not allowed in the high city. They are impure."

"Impure?" Danny asked, looking back to the translator.

"I have used the right word, I think. They are not fully human. Not as we are. Their blood is mixed with the sub-humans."

"Sub-humans?"

The disagreement behind Danny was growing in to an argument.

"We are humans," said the translator, indicating himself and the other occupants of the room. "You, in your time, are human. In our time, you are a sub-human. You have not come as far as us. We have travelled further than you."

"You've evolved further you mean?"

"Yes."

"So why..." Danny was cut off by a chair flying across the room and shattering against a wall. Immediately, the room erupted into a brawl. "Can have evolved that far ahead!" Danny muttered, vacating his chair and following the translator to the opposite end of the room.

The fight quickly spread, the crowded room turning into a mob as if someone had flicked a switch. As with so many pub fights Danny had seen, and ended, the room was a mass of writing bodies and utter confusion and it didn't take long before he was separated from the translator in the melee.

"This way, quick!" Danny turned at the new voice, feeling a hand pluck at his shirt sleeve.

Ducking to avoid blows and flying objects, Danny hurried in the direction of the voice. Once or twice, he say a hooded figure stop in the midst of the fighting and look round, it's face shaded by its hood. He followed it. It led him to an almost invisible door in the smooth wall and disappeared through, leaving the door open just a crack. He followed it. On the other side of the door was darkness. Dark walls leading along a dark corridor. He barely had time to register the fact there were stairs at the end of the corridor when the door closed behind him and he found himself in utter darkness.

XXXX

"I think she likes you," Sarah smirked.

From his bed, Becker stared at the ceiling and refused to comment. He had submitted to having his shirt removed and bandages wrapped round him because he was too wrung out by the bear encounter to do otherwise, plus it made sense to do so at the time. He had submitted to Meg standing over him while the ARC doctors checked him out because she had been filling the medical staff in on details he found sketchy at best. He had even submitted to the indignity of being fussed over by Meg once he'd been removed to the individual room because, well frankly he owed her: she'd just saved his life. Wasn't it meant to be the other way round?

Now Sarah had dropped by, granted just to bring him a clean shirt, and Meg had disappeared. And that bothered him.

"You know she thinks we're a couple," he said eventually, carefully keeping his voice even.

"Does she?" Sarah's voice was all innocence with just a hint of smirk.

"Sarah..."

"I know, I know: I'll set her straight."

"You know she saved my life?"

"Aren't you meant to be saving hers?"

"I had noticed that."

"You like her too, don't you?" Sarah's voice seemed a little sad this time.

"You okay?" Becker asked, risking turning his head a little.

"Yeah, yeah, just tired. You know."

"You should try going a round with a cave bear: that's tiring!"

"Really? Little Meg doesn't seem too tired."

"Does this mean you'll stop referring to her as the mouse then?"

"Maybe 'the mouse who roared'," Sarah conceded, getting up and heading for the door. "But just on special occasions."

XXXX

They were back at the camp, protected on one side by the waterfall and on the other by their fire. Abby was trying to sketch the little furry things they had seen as they made their way back through the tunnels. He was trying to angle mirrors to shine a steady light on the anomaly device. It would take some time but, from what he already knew, and from what he could reason out, he was fairly sure he could get it working again. Whether it would take them home, however, or just to another time era, was an entirely different matter. Without the artefact and the computer, there was no way of pre-programming the device.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The house was dark. It had been dark the last time Sarah had walked past, and the time before that. She hadn't stopped those times. Now she did. Making her way up the steps, she pushed the buzzer and waited.

No reply.

She looked through the letterbox and shouted Jenny's name.

No reply.

Hunting around above the ledge, under the flowerpot, under the doormat, Sarah eventually found a key taped to the underside of the windowsill and let herself in.

The door was stiff, partially because of the pile of unanswered mail lying behind it. There were no papers or bottles of sour milk though, so she presumed Jenny's absence was a planned one.

Closing the door quietly behind her, she made her way through the house. Everything was where it ought to be, as far as she could tell, and a fine layer of dust covered each and every surface in the house. The ground floor told her nothing, except that Jenny had emptied her fridge and cupboards of food that might spoil. Another indicator of a planned absence, or just a person who eats out almost all the time. She made her way up the stairs, trying not to reach out to the bannister and disturb the dust there.

In the bedroom, she found Jenny's wardrobe. It was extensive and mostly intact. It was also organised into outfits, and those outfits were organised in decreasing order of formality. It was the hangers at the far end of the wardrobe, the least formal, that were empty. Sarah rubbed a hand over her chin in thought. Without knowing Jenny better, she had no idea what the missing clothes were, or what else was missing. What seemed definite, however, was that she had planned her absence, packed lightly and only taken the barest necessities with her.

XXXX

Danny winced as a bright greenish light suddenly flared into life, illuminating the corridor and stairs. As his eyes got used to the light he looked over at his new companion.

"You speak English," he stated calmly. "Who are you?

"There are a lot of other people trying to figure that one out," said the hooded man, "but you may call me Kiran. It's what I've been called now for over half of my life."

The man pushed his hood back to show sandy brown hair, a jutting chin and light brown eyes. What struck Danny most forcibly, was the fact that those eyes were exactly the same shape and size as his own.

"You're human?" he asked. Then, correcting himself as he remembered the conversation with his translator, he added: "from my time?"

"There or thereabouts," said Kiran. "Late twentieth century London."

"Early twenty first, also London," Danny stretched out a hand to him. "The name's Danny. Danny Quinn."

"Really?" Kiran blinked in amusement. "What a coincidence."

"Why?" Danny frowned.

"Because," Kiran smiled, "Danny Quinn was my big brother's name."

XXXX

The anomaly detector klaxon was getting louder, Sarah decided as she hurried to her office for her jacket.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah blurted out, staring at the tall form of Professor Grant Mackenzie apparently engrossed in her notes.

"Just looking for you, Doctor Page," Mackenzie replied nonchalantly. "This is very interesting work you've been doing here. I do hope you don't mind me taking a look. Nicky often shared his findings with me, God rest him."

"I do mind, actually," said Sarah, picking up the jacket and keeping herself between Mackenzie and the door. "Some of those papers are personal."

"Shouldn't leave them lying around out here then surely," Mackenzie smiled. "You never know who might drop by."

"There's an anomaly to deal with, and Becker's still out of action. We should really get going."

"Of course, Doctor Page. Do lead the way."

XXXX

Please, don't let it be bugs, Sarah thought. Please, don't let it be bugs!

The Hilux, now driven by one of Becker's men, pulled up outside the old quarry. It had been quite a drive to get here, and there was no sign of disturbance, but the hand held was still indicating an anomaly somewhere within.

The teams piled out, Becker's deputy taking charge of the military personnel with practised ease. Trying to keep one eye on Mackenzie, one on Meg and one on the surrounding area, Sarah followed the alpha and beta teams of soldiers into the quarry.

The quarry was eerily quiet, it's high walls closing out the outside world. Behind her, Sarah could see the gamma and delta teams spreading out to form a perimeter around the area. Somehow it made her feel even more enclosed, like a gladiator waiting to face his next opponent.

Something scuttled, yes scuttled, behind her and Sarah froze. Everyone else had done the same and she didn't like the looks on their faces.

"Permission to shoot to kill, ma'am," said Becker's deputy, deferring to Sarah as the recognised authority.

"What time zone are we looking at, Professor?" Sarah said, willing her voice to stay steady.

"Definitely future, Doctor Page," came the reply.

Sarah looked at the waiting soldier and nodded. A round of gunfire rang out, echoing loudly as it bounced from one side of the quarry to the other. Only when the soldier called the all clear did Sarah dare turn round.

It was a cockroach. Sarah hated cockroaches. They were smelly, creepy crawlies that were almost impossible to kill. The big ones were the worst. Even they, however were not a patch on the creature lying in a shattered heap on the ground behind her.

The carapace had to be a meter and a half long at least, maybe two. The antennae were at least twice that. The legs were as thick as a small tree and the jaws... Sarah shuddered when she looked at the jaws.

After that, finding the anomaly was easy. All they had to do was follow the cockroach trail. It was soon locked and the area swept for any other errant insects. The rover was made ready and sent through. After a half hour or so of sample taking and filming, the rover returned and the anomaly was locked again. It was all going so smoothly. Sarah hated it when that happened: there was almost always a catch.

It came when the rover operators were reviewing the film and isotope samples. One of them called Sarah over, excitedly waving a list of figures at her.

"What? What is it?" Meg called, hurrying over.

"I don't know, I don't speak geek!" Sarah shrugged. She was quickly joined by both Meg and Professor Mackenzie.

"It's the readouts," the rover operator explained excitedly. "We've never had two such similar before!"

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked, still confused.

"Look! Look at the screen! Look at the film! It's the same! The same place, but different!"

"The same as what?" Meg and Sarah cried in unison.

"The racetrack anomaly," said the operator. "It's the same time period as the racetrack anomaly. And the same place! Only this time, something's changed!"

XXXX

That should do it, he thought. Only one way to find out, of course, and silly to try it in the middle of a rocky cave, but if he could get it through the waterfall without getting water into it...

"How's it going?" Abby called over. It was only the tenth time she'd asked, so he wasn't too irritated. Plus, this time he actually had something to tell her.

"I think I've got it," he said. "Just need to try it out."

"Well, let's go then!" said Abby, getting to her feet. "We'll pack up everything and take a couple of torches with us, just in case. We'll have to put the fire out here, though..."

"I said we need to try it out! I didn't say it would definitely work!"

"Connor, we're never going to find out if it definitely works unless we test it," Abby explained patiently, "and the only way to test it is to walk through and see what's on the other side."

Connor opened his mouth to argue this point, found he couldn't and closed it again. He helped Abby with the packing up, chased the proto-mammal who had been bold enough to edge gradually closer to the fire and let Abby draw it, and put the fire out. Together they climbed down the small cliff behind the waterfall and made their way through the spray to the bank, oblivious to the small furry form doggedly following them.

When they were far enough out in the open to lessen the risk of opening an anomaly into solid rock or deep water, Connor keyed in a few things on the device, then held it up and pressed a button.

A bright shining anomaly appeared before them.

"Super cool!"

The small furry animal chirruped in agreement as it followed Connor and Abby through the anomaly.

~Fini~


	12. He Ain't Heavy

Episode 2 in my Primeval Series 4 is now up!

Look for Primeval Series 4: Episode 2: He Ain't Heavy


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